<p>Originally, I was set on going to UCLA after hearing back from all my colleges in January because I didn't think I would get in. I saw it as a blessing. As I was filling out my SIR for UCLA yesterday, I get an email from Northeastern saying I'm one of the few people admitted off the waitlist. I was leaning towards UCLA, but then Northeastern sent me financial aid info today saying I'd only have to pay ~5k. For UCLA, I'd be paying ~26k. Both seem like great schools, and I unfortunately haven't visited either. Ugh T^T I'm completely stuck. I cannot say with certainty if I would prefer California or Boston more. </p>
<p>If I understand you correctly, your Northeastern degree will cost you $20,000 in tuition. UCLA will cost you $104,000. Is UCLA worth over $80,000 more? Tough question, and depends on your family’s financial situation, your academic interests and where you live (to factor in travel costs.)</p>
<p>My mom is paying for college. She may borrow money from my grandpa (he owns a small factory in Taiwan) if she needs or take out loans. My parents are divorced, and my mom makes about 70k a year. </p>
<p>I live in Tennessee. Right now, I’m saying I’m going to study Biology. That will probably change though.
Huh I never thought about that. 104,000 is a LOT of money, and UC students tell me their tuitions have been on the rise.</p>
<p>All schools raise their tuitions a bit - including Northeastern. The UCs have been increasing theirs by quite a bit - over 8-9% - every year. It adds up. Cost of living in Boston is higher than in Los Angeles, but it’s a lot harder to live in LA without a car than in Boston, where a car is an (expensive) hindrance. Plus, with the wonderful public transportation in the east coast, you can easily explore a large part of the country: NYC, Washington DC, Philadelphia, the coast of Maine… all by inexpensive buses and trains.</p>
<p>Go to NEU. A UCLA undergrad degree is not worth 80k more, especially if you need to take significant loans to pay for it. Save that money for the future.</p>
<p>*i don’t know why I said january in my first post. I meant to say march.
I really appreciate all your input. Does anyone else have anything?
My mom is willing to pay for UCLA because she thinks it’s worth it</p>
<p>There isn’t really much advice i can provide other than finances since you haven’t visited either campus. What i can say is that UCLA is a significantly better school than northeastern, but i’m not sure if it’s worth that kind of money.</p>
<p>Tough decision. I think i, at least, would have a hard time justifying such an expensive burden on one of my parents without having ever visited the campus. But that’s just me personally. Good luck with your decision OP. Let me know if you have any specific questions about UCLA.</p>
<p>^^ UCLA has the renown; NEU is highly successful in placing its graduates in (very good) jobs. Nice option to have, OP, you really can’t go wrong. If graduate school is in your future, maybe go to NEU and use the UCLA savings for that?</p>
<p>This morning I was leaning back towards northeastern, but now I’m back towards UCLA. The way this waitlist thing is set up is really unfair because you’d have to decide within a day. If I had known earlier I would have visited both.
Does the “rank” of a school matter in the end, in terms of education and finding a job?</p>
<p>Northeastern students don’t HAVE to “take an extra year.” Many do, to maximize co-ops. But plenty do the program in 4, including a co-op, by taking extra classes or a summer session. You only pay for 4 years of tuition, by the way: no tuition while you’re co-oping. Also, graduating in 4 years from UCLA can be tricky. Many students are forced to do a summer session/take extra classes because it’s increasingly hard to get into certain popular courses. That’s not something Northeastern students have to deal with. </p>
<p>Does ‘rank’ matter? That’s the million dollar question on CC and a lot of the answer depends on your major and interests. </p>
<p>At Northeastern, you will be doing a job while still a student, and graduate with experience you can parlay into a full time job right away, sometimes at the same place where you co-oped. There is no doubt, however, that UCLA is the higher ranked school overall, and has a national/international reputation that NEU doesn’t. You could argue that the hands-on experience of Northeastern will even out/exceed whatever bump you’d get from UCLA’s higher ranking. But, again, that depends on your field. For example, if you’re into liberal arts/humanities, I’d say UCLA is the way to go. If you’re pre-professional in orientation NEU might offer more of a ‘guarantee’ that you’re a highly competitive job candidate after graduation.</p>
<p>A bio degree is what I’m aiming for. I’d like to do research. If I go to UCLA, Im really going to shoot for becoming a doctor because I might as well with the tuition. Ideally, id like to become a docter and travel to third world countries to provide healthcare for those who cant afford it. I’m going back towards northeastern now. It would be more difficult to graduate from UCLA in 4 years? I heard northeastern is one of the most crowded private schools</p>
<p>It isn’t difficult to graduate UCLA in 4 years. That’s completely false. Way more northeastern students take +4 years to graduate than UCLA students. (that why NEU’s forbes ranking was so low; look up the NEU forbes controversy.)</p>
<p>As kataliamom put it, northeastern good if you’re pre-professional. You’re not, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be enjoyable anyway. If you’re pre-med, especially with your goals, that’d be much easier to do with less debt. I still say NEU.</p>
<p>That being said, biology is one of the most popular majors at UCLA. And you’d have access to MANY internships here at UCLA (our hospital’s one of the best in the US) That’s definitely something you should take into consideration.</p>
<p>Thanks guys.
Me and my mom have noticed a distinct divide in which all our friends in Asia are saying to choose UCLA, while Americans are saying I should go to Northeastern. Asians seem to place more emphasis on prestige. </p>
<p>Also, does anyone know anything about the study abroad programs at either schools? That’s a big factor for me.</p>
<p>Northeastern has a lot of study abroad options. They have the traditional programs that are at most schools. They also have the traditional one with an internship component (a lot of people do that and work with European Parliament), International Co-op where you go to a different country and work for 4 to 6 months, or the very popular Dialogues of Civilization where instead of taking classes in the summer you and about 19 other students go with a couple of faculty members and learn/do research in another country. Pretty much anywhere you want to go there is a study abroad/co op for it including Antarctica. Here is the link for the general study abroad site [Study</a> Abroad at Northeastern University](<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/studyabroad/]Study”>http://www.northeastern.edu/studyabroad/)</p>